Just a short note here---after hiking Cedar Butte I came down and simply hiked past my parked rig, down the road, and hit the Rattlesnake Ledge trail. Just a quick word that the trail did indeed have a slew of blowdown from the windstorm. See reports on WTA web site. And the views sucked up on top: pea soup baby! The ledge was about 75' into the cloud deck/fog all day and still was when I was up there. But it was special for a 3-hike day,and I couldn't stay anyhow as it was starting to get dark. The hike down was 1/2 falling/jogging and I was back at the lake in 25 minutes...and darkness. And cold...I was still cold from wetting my pants....er....having damp pants from the 35 minute downpour 5 hours earlier on Little Si. Even the good fabric stays damp on a day like today once it is wet.
Oh, I saw what looked to be a Great horned owl just as I came back down to near the lake, and a bald eagle was flying by. Nice end to a day of short hikes...but they added up to about 10 miles an 3000' elevation, so not so "short and easy" after all.
Unfortunately I don't have anything more exciting to report on. At the risk of going through major outdoors withdrawl, I threw some junk in my pack and headed out to Exit 32 around noon today. The new trail is in fine shape and it was nice to come back and see a stretch that a bunch of us helped build back last May. After not getting out for 2 months I fought the aches and pains all the way to the top, but at least I didn't have to hop any blowdowns or trudge through any snow Views from the top were relaxing and beat looking at my computer screen all day. Surprisingly, I had the top and most of the trail up and down to myself.
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